Children get head start for school

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, August 20, 2008

With one week until school, a group of Moose Riders rode to the rescue for some young students.

More than 50 children living at Destiny Village will have backpacks and school supplies for the first day of school.

Destiny Village is a branch facility of The Bridge Over Troubled Water, which provides shelter and counseling for mothers transitioning out of domestic violence situations.

Without school supplies and without the resources to purchase supplies, Destiny Village welcomed the Moose Riders’ generosity as they delivered at least 10 boxes to be distributed on Thursday afternoon.

“The rain started and I thought, Lord, we’re trying to help the kids,” said Bob Green, administrator of the Moose Riders’ Lodge and the Moose Fraternity.

The idea to donate school supplies came about during one of the Lodge’s monthly biker meetings.

“We decided that we would do something for the schools where there was a large attendance of lower-income kids,” said Green.

That idea expanded when the Moose Riders discovered The Bridge and its children.

“We all made donations and if you didn’t go buy them, you just pitched in,” said Green.

The Riders raised more than $700 and all went to help children in extraordinary circumstances prepare for an ordinary first day of school.

“We bought backpacks, books, crayons and everything else and delivered them today,” said Green, who estimated that at least 80 children were prepared and readied for the first day of school.

This was not the Moose Fraternity’s experience with The Bridge, but one in an evolving bond.

Last Easter, dozens of children at Destiny Village watched as a caravan of bikers rode into their temporary home and delivered an old-fashioned Easter egg hunt. On the Fourth of July, the bikers returned for a traditional celebration.

For Green, it is more than the material things they bring to the Destiny Village on these occasions.

The Fourth of July hot dogs, the Easter eggs and the school supplies are one way in which the Lodge, Moose Heart, provides a small bit of normalcy in their lives.

“We have adopted the Destiny kids and we are trying to give them a better life,” said Green. “These kids started out with strike two. There are so many stories that break your heart.”